the capital is preparing for the most high—profile event to be held in india in years. security is tight, and the budget for hosting is reported to be more than $100 million. the two—day event will be attended by several world leaders, including us presidentjoe biden — seen here boarding his plane earlier thursday. president biden�*s upcoming asia trip has two parts, with visits to india and vietnam scheduled. one of the goals is to counter the influence of their common neighbour china. he first goes to new delhi to take part in the 620 summit over the weekend. then he travels to vietnam's capital city hanoi, to meet with vietnamese general secretary, nguyen phu trong. earlier, my colleague caitrona perry spoke with tim roemer, former us ambassador to india, on what to look out for at this summit. ambassador, thanks forjoining us. what are you expecting from this 620 summit in india? well, you know, when you look at the 620, you have 85% of the global gross domestic product represented, you have about 75% of world trade, and you have two thirds of the world population. so this is quite an opportunity for president biden and prime minister modi, who will have the stage as world leaders kind of themselves — with putin and xi missing — to really talk about, as architects, what the shape and the balance of power looks like in asia in the years to come. they can have some big deliverables and talk about implementing what they met on in washington, dc just a few months ago, to talk about the engine deals, the drone deals, the tech deals, the manufacturing deals that the us and india worked on bilaterally. but i also think that there's a big opportunity here for india to project its rise around the world, to the world, to talk about how far they've come in the last several decades — fourth—biggest economy in the world, the biggest democracy, maybe the biggest population in the world, and their economic growth and progress. so great opportunities, but there'll be some questions at the end of this, too, obviously. the big question's about what goes next. but without vladimir putin and xijinping not there — both deciding to skip it for different reasons — what does that say about where the international order is at now? well, there's certainly a lot of division, a lot of volatility, a lot of opportunity in geopolitics and strategic convergence. i've written the term and heard the term "strategic convergence" now in the last year more than i have in the last 10—15 years, with respect to india's and the united states�* strategic interests coming together. so there are opportunities there, you know, with putin and xi missing physically from this meeting in delhi, they're not missing from it, in terms of their influence and their power. certainly in a joint communique, a joint statement issued at the end of the 620, will they be able to step on any kind of statement that could be put in on ukraine and the ukraine war? my guess is the joint communique, if they come up with one and agree to one, will probably skirt that issue and will be more about reform of the multilateral institutions, to lend more to the poorer countries, and on development and climate issues. they'll talk more about climate change and how to work together across the globe. but whether or not and what's in a joint communique at the end of the day on sunday will be a big question. now, i see there is that multilateral discussion that happens at a 620, but without putin and xi there, president biden will be deprived of the opportunity for one—on—one meetings. how important is that, that he won't get that chance? well, i think it's a real opportunity for president biden — both domestically, here at home in the united states, and internationally — to show energy, to show invigoration, to show that he is a world leader, and that with the vacuum of xi and putin not being there, that he and modi have the stage almost to themselves to talk about how they see the world developing in the next ten years, and where india and the us, and developing countries can work on that together. you know, climate change and green energy, and green energy opportunities. chip manufacturing — where does some of the manufacturing go when it's not going to go back to china now, after covid? is india going to get that? is the united states going to home—shore that? will vietnam get that? and then you also have, i think, on the bookends of this, very interesting things happening. we all remember a couple of weeks ago, the united states convened, south korea and japan getting together for a trilateral with the united states, a historic outcome there for cooperation in asia. and then, mr biden will be leaving delhi on sunday and going to vietnam to work on cementing a strategic deal with vietnam. so you can see the us strategy for asia, its cooperation with india and other countries in the region, with xi missing, there's an opportunity for biden to step into that and be an architect of what the world looks like coming together in the next few years. 0k, and if wejust look at india specifically, in addition to reports of ongoing human rights abuses, we've seen in recent days and weeks the clearing of slums in new delhi, the building of walls to hide camps ahead of the world leaders, the world's media descending on india. how should joe biden address that? well, many of us talked about that when mr modi visited the united states back injune for the white house state dinner, and for the very important and breathtaking deliverables that were announced back then. that's certainly a key issue to the united states and the world, as india, being the largest democracy in the world, how do they embrace their diversity? how do they embrace the goals of their constitution, and we the people, like our constitution, america treating everybody equally. how do they, now that they're growing at 7% per year, they've grown to be the third or fourth largest economy in the world, their big challenge now is they're 139th out of 181 countries in per capita income. how do they make sure that that income gets to the poorest people, the jobs get to the people, young people coming out of college? you know, there are opportunities for all people in india, whether they're muslim or hindu, orjain or buddhist, or sikh, whatever that might be in the terms of that background and that religion. so that's something that i'm sure mr biden will bring up in the bilateral meeting on friday with mr modi. and mr modi's up for re—election coming up in 2024 — this is an opportunity for him to show the world that not only is economic growth and stability, and projecting power to his people important for his re—election and for world power, but so are goals like human rights and diversity. 0k, ambassador tim roemer, thank you so much forjoining us. my pleasure to be on bbc. meanwhile, china's trade with the rest of the world is struggling because of weak global demand. the country's imports and exports have dropped for the fourth month in a row. 0fficials figures show exports fell 8.8% in august compared to last year, and imports dropped by 7.3%. but this rate of decline is actually an improvement on the previous month. as we discussed with ambassador roemer, this all comes as the chinese president, xijinping, decides to skip the 620 summit this weekend — missing any chance of meeting with president biden on the sidelines. earlier, democratic congressman from illinois, raja krishnamoorthi, discussed this with my colleague caitriona perry. congressman, thanks forjoining us. in your role as ranking member on the committee for strategic competition between the us and china, you of course keep a close eye on trade matters. the latest figures coming out of china show imports and exports fell in august, putting pressure on the manufacturing sector. the slowdown continues — is there any sign of it bottoming out, as far as you can see? not that i can see. i think that they are in a real tailspin in china right now. youth unemployment as above 20%. consumer confidence is low, people aren't buying stuff. on top of all of that, you have the risk of deflation and you have demographic freefall, because the population is shrinking. so, given all those issues, i think that they have a lot to address. and, with respect, i think that any economic or military aggression is really counterproductive to what they're trying to achieve, which is to improve their economic fortunes right now. so what does that trajectory then mean for domestic trade here in the us? well, we have very little exposure to china because we we export very little as a percentage of our economy to china. it's a product of the fact that they've used protectionist policies to prevent american companies from really taking advantage of the chinese market. so, while our economy is growing, it's very strong and resilient right now with record unemployment, record low unemployment — unfortunately, the chinese are not seeing that, they're seeing the opposite. and we'll have more on that interview with congressman krishnamoorthi in the next hour. military authorities in mali say at least 64 people have been killed in two separate attacks by islamist militants. dozens of civilians reportedly died when a passenger boat travelling on the niger river came underfire in a village about 100 kilometres east of timbuktu. later, a nearby military camp, downriver in bamba, was attacked with 15 soldiers among the victims. in a statement read on national television, mali's military authorities said 50 jihadists had been killed. the bbc has not been able to independently verify these reports. injune, thejunta, which came to power in 2021, asked united nations forces to end their ten—year mission in the country by the end of the year, claiming that forces from russia's wagner group had the militants under control. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. torrential rains have led to flash flooding in hong kong. the territory's weather agency said more than 158 millimetres of rain fell in a single hour late on thursday — that's about six inches of rain, and the highest hourly rate since records began. schools are shut, and residents have been urged to stay inside. the us open women's semifinal was delayed by climate activitsts on thursday night. the match between american coco 6auff and karolina muchova of the czech republic finally resumed after a 50—minute stoppage. the match had to be halted in the second set when a group of spectators began chanting "end fossil fuels". one of the protesters glued his feet to the stadium floor, extending the delay. dramatic video has emerged of a convicted killer in the us who escaped a pennsylvania prison by "crab walking" up between two walls. danelo cavalcante had been sentenced to life cavalcante remains at large. you're live with bbc news. here in washington, peter navarro, a former trade adviser for donald trump, was found guilty on two counts of criminal contempt of congress in a federal trial on thursday. navarro was found in contempt for defying a subpoena issued by the house select committee investigating the january 6th, 2021 attack on the us capitol. he's the second former member of donald trump's inner circle to be convicted on such charges. 0ur correspondent 6ary 0'donoghue has more. this was an incredibly short trial, lasting just two days, and thejury tookjust about six hours to come to its guilty verdict on both charges. now those charges are contempt of congress — and that's because peter navarro failed to comply with a congressional subpoena from the january 6th committee to produce documents and to appear to give testimony. what they wanted to hear about was something called the green bay sweep — which was peter navarro�*s own name for a plan to overturn the election results in congress onjanuary 6th. now he said he didn't have to give them the documents or appear because it was all covered by executive privilege, but the judge throughout that defence before the trial even started. so he was unable to run that, and really offered no defence in terms of his own case. after the court concluded, he appeared and said that he would appeal the conviction. he could face up to a year in prison on each of the charges and up to a $100,000 fine. we are expecting him to be sentenced in january. now he's the second trump adviser to be charged on contempt of congress — steve bannon, of course, got four months for the same charges, but he's still at liberty because his appeal is pending. but here we are, once again, the president's men going to court and getting convicted. 6ary 0'donoghue reporting there. turning to the war in ukraine — nato says kyiv�*s counter—offensive against russia is showing some signs of progress. the security bloc�*s secretary general, jens stoltenberg, told members of the european parliament that ukrainian troops have made gradual gains, advancing through russian defence lines despite heavy fighting. the kremlin says its air defences downed two suspected ukrainian drones near rostov—on—don. it's home to key southern russia military base. no casualties were reported. meanwhile, a ukrainian drone targeted an industrial site also in southern russia, setting a building on fire but causing no injuries. it all comes as us secretary of state, antony blinken, wrapped up his second day visiting ukraine. blinken has pledged another billion—dollar aid package including depleted uranium shells strong enough to pierce through tank armour, which are seen as controversial due to low amounts of radiation. i spoke earlier with retired us army lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. he was an expert on ukraine in former us president trump's national security council. colonel vindman, the us announcing it will supply ukraine with these depleted uranium munitions — of course earlier this year, the us also supplying other controversial weapons, these cluster munitions. what do you make of these types of weapons being supplied to ukraine, is this the right move? thanks, carl, for having me on. you know, it's interesting that this is being described as controversial, because this is a cornerstone of the us munitions arsenal. both cluster munitions and these depleted uranium rounds, tank rounds, sabre rounds are central to the way that the us fights. it is controversial because there is, in fact, a movement under way to dispense with mines. mines have been unfortunately responsible for numerous civilian — thousands of civilian wounds, wounded people over the course of decades, because these minefields don't necessarily disappear after the war is done. what the munitions that the us has provided are actually unique in certain ways — they're improved mine munitions, their dud rate, their failure rate amounts to about 1—2%... of course, nevertheless, there will be some duds left over once the war is eventually over. russia has been very critical of these depleted uranium munitions, there are some worries that they could be slightly radioactive. what does this move say about the progress of the counteroffensive? is this either a vote of confidence, or is this potentially a sign of desperation, providing these kinds of weapons? i think it's a necessity, and its rich for russia to criticise the us and/or ukraine on the heels of genocidal attacks on the ukrainian population — an attack yesterday into a market that killed more than a dozen people and injured scores. i think it's absolutely absurd that the russians still can get away with this narrative that somehow they're the good actor. in reality, this isjust a simple needs—based capability provided to ukraine. we don't have enough conventional munitions in our arsenal, the west doesn't have sufficient conventional munitions in its arsenal — we have plenty of these cluster munitions in the arsenal that we are providing to ukrainians so they could liberate their territory and ease the suffering inflicted by the russians. the depleted uranium rounds are, again, a cornerstone of our tank force — our m1 abrams are employed with these depleted uranium rounds. the risk of any kind of radioactive residue, by multiple studies, has been proven to be negligible. most importantly, ukraine is a sovereign state. ukraine is more than capable of making decisions for itself. they understand the risks to civilians, they understand the risks of cluster munitions, they understand the risks of depleted uranium rounds. they are taking this risk onto themselves, whatever minimal risk exists, so that they could liberate their territory and ease the suffering of their population inflicted by the russians. this week, three us secretaries of the air force, the army and the navy wrote an opinion piece in the washington post, and they're urging alabama senator tommy tuberville to stop blocking the confirmation of hundreds of various military officers. what do you make of tuberville blocking these confirmations? carl, i'll tell you that this this particular action from senator tuberville makes my blood boil. i was forced out of military service by retaliation from the trump administration. the trump administration withheld my name the promotion list of colonel. i could have either stayed in the service and held up that entire promotion list for all the colonels in the united states army indefinitely until trump left office, or taken the actions which i did, which is i wasn't going to penalise my fellow peers in the military, or, for that matter, i was not willing to jeopardise us national security. tommy tuberville is doing the exact opposite. he is politicising promotions, he's holding up promotions for a political agenda, has nothing to do with the qualifications of these officers. and it really, really makes me angry. the reason it makes me so angry is because it has an enormous effect on readiness. it has an enormous effect on the ability of the military to retain the best and the brightest that now look at their service as notjust apolitical, but politcised. well, it's important to mention that senator tuberville does argue — he says his actions are not harming military readiness. you say he's wrong. well, i mean, clearly, the secretaries of the service — army, air force, and navy have said this. every living secretary of defense, months back — i think it was back in may — signed a letter criticising senator tuberville�*s hold. this has been going on for months. it is affecting my friends and peers that are that cannot even at the colonel level, cannot get their promotions because there are restrictions on the number of people that can serve in certain billets. this is having an effect on spouses and employment. this is having effect on children that can't start at the schools that they're supposed to be starting based on the new assignments. this is having cascading effects throughout the entire force, and it's actually having an effect on the perceptions around the military — it's politicising the military. it makes makes my blood boil, it makes me sick. senator tuberville is harming us national security for his own personal gain, for his own personal agenda, enriching his coffers, his campaign coffers, and so forth, and it is completely unacceptable. i am laser—focused on getting him to reverse this extremely harmful policy. lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, former director for european and russian affairs at the national security council, thank you for your point of view. thank you. the head of one of japan's premiere men's talent agencies, julie fujishima, has resigned over allegations of sexual abuse by its late founder. thejohnny & associates agency founder, johnny kitagawa, is accused of abusing a large number of young men from the 1950s through to the 2